WELD COUNTY -- Doug Rademacher points to one of his wheat fields along Weld County Road 13, the plants a flaxen color and the heads nice and full, but they're stunted, not as tall as they should be.

That's because they're under stress.

"It raises the protein up and then the millers don't want it for flour because it has too much protein in it, so all it's good for is cattle feed," said Rademacher, a Weld County commissioner whose family has farmed in southwest Weld County for generations.

That means much lower profit margins on that field of wheat, especially when the transportation costs of hauling it to a feedlot in Gilcrest are factored in.

But this particular wheat field is still in much better shape than the sparse, parched-looking cornfield across the road, where there's as much bare dirt as there are corn stalks.

This 30-acre field looks like several on the thousand-or-so acres he farms -- basically a complete write-off. He'll hope for rain and take whatever yields he gets from it, but he won't be dedicating any more water to it.

So Rademacher welcomed Tuesday's news that U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's drought disaster declaration for 62 of Colorado's 64 counties, including Weld and Boulder.

"We're actually more fortunate than most, I think," Rademacher said. "I heard of a farmer that planted 1,800 acres and he ended up salvaging 300. That's a loss."

Ultimately, an insurance adjuster will take a look at this cornfield and all the other damaged fields on his land, Rademacher said. He expects he'll be reimbursed somewhere between 50 percent and 80 percent of the projected value of that field's crop.

But that will be nowhere near his total investment in that field, he said.

Weld County farmer Doug Rademacher stands in a distressed 30-acre corn field. Rademacher said on Tuesday that the corn in the field is not growing because of the drought.
(
LEWIS GEYER
)

Luckily, he's only having to write off one of his sugar beet fields. That's the crop that provides the highest profit margins.

He's also growing wheat and corn this year but decided against planting sunflowers -- a crop that delivers lower profit margins but requires much less water to grow.

"This is as dry as it was in 2002 or 2006, Rademacher said. "2002 was the benchmark."

Kent Peppler, a fourth-generation Weld County farmer and president of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, said before 2002, you have to go back to 1954 to find conditions that were this bad -- and that's before he was born.

"Last year we had a huge snowpack, the river ran high for a good portion of the summer, and were having one of our best years ever," said Peppler, who grows a variety of crops on about 500 acres near Mead. "To have such a quick turnaround took us all by surprise.

"I remember sitting around in meetings in January and February -- we were thinking we had a 75 percent snowpack and our snowiest months ahead of us. To say this is a surprise, I think, is understating it a little bit."

The heavy snows March and April usually bring never materialized.

"By the end of April, we were all questioning how much more farming we should be doing," Peppler said.

The disaster declaration means farmers can qualify for low-interest government loans and emergency funds that might become available, Peppler said. Sometimes the only thing that can really help a farmer in conditions like this is a check, he said, not another loan.

However, those funds may not be forthcoming, given the political climate in Washington, D.C., he said.

Peppler doesn't look at assistance as a government bailout, but a rather a necessary part of the agricultural industry in this country.

"When we have disasters, we really need checks to get us through," Peppler said. "We're not begging for a bailout. We're merely asking for money to survive, in a system that pits us against profitability."

Corn plants in Doug Rademacher s field are parched from lack of water. The Weld County commissioner said federal assistance won t cover all of his costs this year.
(
LEWIS GEYER
)

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